With just a day to go before the deadline for agreement on setting up an all-party Northern Ireland executive, the Government has still no indication that the IRA will issue a statement to help the process.
The Taoiseach continued yesterday to urge the Ulster Unionist Party to accept what is on offer, saying it would finally test Sinn Fein commitments on decommissioning and give Mr David Trimble's position the "high moral ground" if the IRA failed to deliver.
However, a UUP delegation led by the party's security spokesman, Mr Ken Maginnis, is believed to have bluntly told Mr Ahern in Dublin yesterday that there is not enough in the failsafe legislation and The Way Forward document to convince the UUP executive, which meets tonight, to agree to the establishment of the executive.
The Taoiseach had a further series of meetings and phone conversations with key players in the Northern Ireland political process yesterday.
However, as tomorrow's deadline for agreement on decommissioning and the formation of the all-party executive approaches, there was no real optimism in Government circles of a break through.
According to a spokesman the Government still has "no indication" as to whether the IRA will issue a statement in advance of the deadline saying it accepts the timetable for decommissioning outlined in The Way Forward.
Mr Ahern met Ms Brid Rodgers of the SDLP in Cavan yesterday morning to discuss the Drumcree situation and the prospects of political progress. Ms Rodgers travelled to Cavan to meet Mr Ahern, who had stayed there overnight after a party function the previous night.
Mr Ahern also discussed the situation with the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, yesterday morning before meeting the UUP delegation. That evening he had a further discussion with the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams.
Meanwhile, a significant British-Irish disagreement has emerged over the "failsafe" provisions of the Northern Ireland Bill which was due to be passed by the House of Commons early this morning.
The Government told Downing Street several times yesterday it was unhappy with provisions which would allow the Northern Ireland Assembly to meet even if the institutions of the Belfast Agreement had officially been suspended.
The Way Forward document, published by the two governments last Friday week, said that if commitments under the agreement were not met, either in relation to devolution or decommissioning, the governments would "with immediate effect, suspend the operation of the institutions set up by the agreement".
However, the Northern Ireland Bill, which was being debated in the House of Commons last night, allows for two meetings of the Assembly after such a suspension. The first would discuss the review which would automatically occur after a suspension. The second would vote on "any action proposed to be taken in consequence of the review".
The Government and the SDLP are understood to be concerned that this provision would allow the unionists in the Assembly to propose a motion to exclude Sinn Fein from the executive after the governments had conducted a review.
While the Government expressed its concerns on the matter several times to Downing Street yesterday, there was no expectation in Government circles that its concerns would be responded to.
The Government yesterday published a draft British-Irish agreement which will be signed by both governments next week should the formation of the executive and the devolution of powers to it go ahead. This agreement enshrines the "failsafe" proposal in The Way Forward in an international agreement between Britain and Ireland. The Cabinet will today formally approve this agreement, and if signed next Monday, it will be placed in the Dail library.
However, the Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, said last night this was not sufficient.
"Under Article 29 of the Constitution, every international agreement to which the State becomes a party `shall be laid before Dail Eireann' and shall only become `part of the domestic law of the State as determined by the Oireachtas'," he said.
"Today's failsafe agreement purports to suspend the domestic law of this State as passed by Dail Eireann," he went on. "That can only be done with the consent of the Dail under Article 29."
Mr Bruton referred to the pledge of office which included a commitment to non-violence and exclusively peaceful and democratic means.
He said there was a difficulty in knowing what the Government would regard as a breach of this pledge by Sinn Fein, in the light of the Taoiseach's newly adopted position that Sinn Fein and the IRA were "two separate organisations".
If there were different organisations, Sinn Fein ministers could insist that they had a judicial right to stay in the executive, in accord with the Belfast Agreement even if a full scale IRA military campaign was resumed. What attitude would this Government take to that, he asked.
This question went to the heart of the peace process, he said. It should be answered by the Taoiseach in the Dail.